This invention generally relates to shipping and display cases, and to blanks for making such cases.
Shipping and display cases have the dual purpose of containing or holding articles both while the articles are being shipped and while the articles are being displayed, typically at a retail store, convenience store, drug store, club store or mass merchandiser such as a grocery store. The use of these cases has the advantage of eliminating the need at the retail outlet to remove the individual articles from the case and to place those articles individually on shelves or racks so that the articles are available to the consumer. Instead, when a shipping and display case is used, it is only necessary at the retail store to open the case and to put the case in a location accessible to the consumer.
With many shipping/display cases, it is desirable or necessary that the cases be opened in a particular manner so that the articles inside the cases are displayed, or made accessible, in an appropriate or preferred way. Commonly, these cases are provided with a combination of score lines and cuts to enable or to facilitate opening the cases in the desired manner.
Providing cases with such perforated scoring lines, however, is complicated by the fact that perforations tend to reduce the structural integrity of the cases. As a practical matter, this may reduce the compressive strength of the cases. This compressive strength is important because shipping/display cases are often stacked one upon another in order to conserve space and to utilize efficiently warehouse and cargo space. In addition, perforations may open or rupture prematurely during shipping and handling of the cases, subjecting the articles inside the cases to loss or damage, prior to delivery to the customer.
Because of the above-considerations, it is often difficult to design a shipping/display case that can be readily and easily cut or torn open in a particular way and that also has the desired structural integrity.
An object of this invention is to improve display/shipper cases.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved stadium style display shipper.
A further object of this invention is to provide a display shipper with a series of perforations that allows complete access to the front packages of the, but that does not significantly affect the structural integrity of the case.
These and other objectives are attained with a shipping and display case having a uniquely designed series of perforations and cuts for opening the case. The case may have a conventional box shape, including front, back, left, right, top and bottom panels, and the case is provided with a perforated tear line that is used to open the case. The tear line is formed by a multitude of perforations or slits; and the slits in selected portions of the tear line are substantially longer than the slits in the rest of the tear line. This slit/score pattern is adjusted to afford ease of opening by the customer or sales representative. In particular, in the portions of the tear line that cross over left and right front edges of the case, and in selected angled portions of the tear line, the slits are substantially longer than the slits in the rest of the tear line. These longer slits make it easier to cut the tear line through areas where it is normally difficult to tear cleanly. In addition, the display shipper of the present invention can be easily run on existing case packing equipment, making it easily adaptable (?) to the manufacturing plants, allowing them ease of transition into this case as promotions, in-outs or customer requests are scheduled.
The design of the present invention achieves benefits associated with the use of tear lines without the normal associated disadvantages. In particular, the use of longer slits in selected portions of the tear line allows the tear line to be easily, cleanly cut or torn. At the same time, the use of shorter slits through most of the tear line results in a tear line that does not significantly reduce the structural integrity of the case, and that is resistant to premature or inadvertent opening.
Further benefits and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description, given with reference to the accompanying drawings, which specify and show preferred embodiments of the invention.